Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was interrupted on the Senate floor Monday by anti-torture protesters demanding and chanting for prosecutions from details uncovered in the CIA torture report.

The demonstrators made entry as visitors to the Senate floor and began shouting “U.S. torture, it’s official, prosecute now!” as they were quickly muted and removed from the room. Durbin immediately ceased speaking until the chants of “prosecute now” were heard from outside the Senate floor.

Eleven of the protesters were arrested by Capitol Police as other visitors to the Senate gallery were warned that more outbursts would lead to their arrest, “You’re here as a guest of the United States Senate.”

This comes just days after two anti-torture protestors were arrested at the Virginia home of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Twenty prisoners, many in prison jumpsuits, walked onto his McLean property Saturday to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Reuters reports.

Additional protestors went to the home of CIA Director John Brennan.

Two members who refused to leave the premises by police were arrested on misdemeanor trespassing and disorderly conduct charges, said police.
(credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

“We already know of 24 members of Congress who have told us privately that they don’t believe in God, but they won’t come out, of course, and if we tried to out them they would deny it,” she told Religion News Service.

The last open atheist in Congress was Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., in 2012. Religion News Service reports Stark admitted that he was an atheist 35 years after being elected. Barney Frank announced he was an atheist after he retired from Congress. Atheist James Woods from Arizona is running for Congress and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema does not identify with a religion.

A Pew Research Center poll from May found that 53 percent of Americans would less likely support a candidate that didn’t believe in God. Forty-one percent of those polled said it wouldn’t matter if the candidate believed in God or not.